Carnall, M; (2007) Zoo Store 1 at the Natural History Museum: Meeting National Standards. Papers from the Institute of Archaeology , 18 (S1) 20 - 35. 10.5334/pia.287.

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Abstract

The Natural History Museum (NHM), London is at the forefront of natural history science, and a major player in developing standards for the care of these collections in museums. Around ten years ago, there was a great deal of activity developing policies and standards for the care of the different museum collections. Despite this, the feeling in the museum is that the management of the collections was neglected for some years. Since the Museum Registrar was appointed in 2004, the Museum hosted the International SPNHC Conference and has been working on implementing these policies. This paper examines how the NHM’s collections storage compares to the standards and policies to which the museum aspires. Zoo Store 1, one of the NHM’s oldest storerooms, is used as a case study. The investigation found that the store falls short of the aspired standards in documentation, security, storage and environmental conditions, but significant progress has been made in the last two years. Reasons range from historical problems inherited from previous generations of museum workers, the attitudes of personnel, and the sheer time that it takes to implement a series of standards across very large collections and numbers of staff.

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